Devices for coating pipes are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,521,010 describes a coating machine including a drum and a shaft centrally located within the drum that is provided with star wheels spaced apart and keyed to the shaft. The star wheels are provided with notches to receive tubes to be coated. In use, the shaft is caused to rotate in an anti-clockwise direction. The tubes are allowed to travel into the notches by moving over an intake platform. As the star wheels carry the tubes in an anti-clockwise direction down through a liquid bath, they are coated. After coating, the tubes are released from the drum and rolled out through an opening on to an incline platform.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,114,974 describes an apparatus for coating pipes including a supply station, a heating station, a vat containing a coating material, a drying station where the pipes are drained of excess coating material, a discharge station and conveying means for transferring the pipe horizontally and with step-by-step progression through a series of stations. In use, the pipes are brought to the coating machine by causing them to roll on spaced parallel rails elevated above the floor of the foundry, at the supply station. The pipes received at the supply station are admitted one at a time to a conveyor including a pair of spaced parallel skids having notches at regular intervals there along. The pipes are then rolled onto supporting surfaces where they are temporarily arrested by the ends of a pair of pipe-carrying fingers, preparatory to immersion in vat. In order to effect the rolling of the pipes into the vat with guided and controlled movement, the pipe-carrying fingers are pivotally mounted and are operated in timed relation with the conveyor. After immersion in the vat the pipe is carried upwardly and caused to roll along the top edges of the pipe-carrying fingers to a draining station including an inclined plate leading downwardly toward the vat and over which excess coating material drained from the pipes is caused to return to the vat.